uvEclipse

UVeclipse is a program created by David Rutten. The following is clipped from the UVeclipse home page:

"The purpose of UVeclipse is to lubricate the tedious task of a lighting setup prior to rendering. In order to render an image in a photoreal context you need lots of lighting factors to approach the real thing. In most cases photons are colliding with objects all over the place and adding 2 spotlights to your scene isn't going to make up for that. Some platforms feature skylights but often these lack the necessary colour controls which would make them really useful."

"UVeclipse can generate a realistic lighting setup within seconds, based on easy to get image data. Lightdomes are used to simulate a light-casting environment, including coloured, directional shadows and hotspots."

The counter part to uvECLIPSE is to use an importer with your rendering. For more information on getting started check out the uvECLIPSE tutorials in the Workshop. The following links are programs (UVeclipse and 5AMin for AutoCAD) plus some bonus 5AM Files.